


Frustration

by siriuslychessi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:21:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28393794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siriuslychessi/pseuds/siriuslychessi
Summary: James and Lily get "lost" in the Forbidden Forest. Basically cute bickering.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 14
Kudos: 28
Collections: Potterverse Gift Exchange





	Frustration

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HazzaP](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HazzaP/gifts).



Snow always made things quiet and gorgeous at Hogwarts, at least outside of the castle. Hagrid’s hut seemed impossibly small and you could only distinguish it from the rest of the Grounds because of the slowly ongoing smoke trail that escaped the chimney. It was something that James always loved watching; he even tuned out the loud halls of Hogwarts as students were too stressed and cold to leave the walls of the castle.

However James Potter wasn’t afraid of a little snow, he had grown up in Scotland after all, this scenery just reminded him of home, of a place he missed when his mother sent letter and care packages, and so familiar that he could just close his eyes and find his way back there. 

Putting on a warming spell he moved towards the doors of the castle, maybe he could walk around the forest for a bit, feel how the snow moved below his feet and the sound would just be quieter than the crushing leaves of autumn, have the smallest red nose due to the spell working it’s magic and just feel the winter finally arriving to Hogwarts.

Everyone knew the loud James, the one that put on the parties, that always sneaked up on you from Salazar knew where, Quidditch Captain and sort of leader of this weird group of friends that were as loud as him. However little did the rest of the castle know that as loud as James was he needed times with just him and his thoughts, just let his mind and energy turn off for a little bit and recharge, and this snowy day was exactly the type of day he needed with tests and a full moon coming his way. 

His feet guided him towards the line of the forest, it was a familiar path, he didn’t need to even look up to know that he would need to be careful with the boulder that wasn’t visible next to the tree stump where Hagrid chopped the wood, or that if he went a little to the left he would alert the Whomping Willow. However, if he did look up instead of being mesmerized by the snow below him he would see that he was about to crash into someone. 

The little thump from the snow and the exclamation from the other person is what made James look ahead. And what he saw left him cold to the bone, even with the spell on him. 

“Evans, Merlin! I didn’t see you!” he exclaimed as he saw the red hair against the white snow and all he could do was almost stutter and help her up. But of course she just pushed his hand away. 

“How could you not!” she replied as she moved up and cleaned the snow from her robes, “I’m the only one standing here, if I were a tree your glasses would be shattered!” she wasn’t exactly looking at him, she was too busy cleaning her robes, yet, James could see that she was upset by something other than a lame fall. 

“Well my specs might be defective, you never know. I might need to let Poppy check on them.” he tried joking. They had been sort of friendly for a while now and it wasn’t exactly one of the closest relationships to date but at least he wasn’t a toerag anymore.

“While you are there make sure she checks your head as well.” she joked lightly. Making James fear of her being too upset with him go away. 

“I think that’s a goner, not much to do with the old knocker.” he kept joking as he noticed the little things, she was only in school robes, not the whole set to get out of the castle, she forgot her scarf, that he knew she always grabbed as she stepped out of the castle, and her nose and eyes were a bit reddish, but didn’t seem that it was from the cold. 

“One can hope that there is some salvation, still.” she replied, still avoiding his eyes. Her hand moved to check her perfectly messed hair, James could care less that it was tossed from the fall, it was the same hair that she had when she was too focused on a potion, or when she was with just the girls and thought that no one else was watching, just the perfect little mess that made her perfection just shine a little brighter.

He wanted to reach and help a strand of hair out of her face, but they didn’t have that kind of relationship. She made it clear for years that they wouldn’t ever be something like that. Yet ye’ old crush came back slamming at James’ heart when he least expected it. 

“Don’t worry, Evans, you look fine for your date with the Giant Squid.” he said with a soft smile on his face, he knew that that was before they got along, they could joke about it, right? 

Lily chuckled a bit to that, of course he would remember and she did as well, Merlin some of those fights seemed like they happened ages ago and they seemed so silly now. “He likes it like that, reminds him of his tentacles” she replied, making James laugh.

Things were still a bit awkward between them, neither of them knew exactly why, but the tension that was there when they were alone without their friends seemed almost palpable.

He saw her shiver, it wasn’t exactly something she could hide, but she was full of pride, just as him. In a certain way reminded him of Sirius when he tried to deny that he was being too stubborn to get out to a more comfortable zone. 

“I think you are missing something for your date.” he said as he took his thicker cloak and put it around Lily’s shoulders, “I’m sure Fred doesn’t want you to get a cold on your date.” he said softly, nonchalantly, as if it were normal that this happened every day. 

“Fred?” Lily asked not sure what was happening, James’ cloak was warm and giant on her but for some reason the simple act made her blush. This was just a friend looking out for another, right?

James ruffled his hair nervously, like he used to do all the time when he was younger. “I call him Fred since first year, Giant Squid seems a little impersonal if you ask me.” he blushed, a bit ashamed to admit such a childish thing, yet Lily found it endearing for some reason. 

“That cute,” she admitted with a light chuckle, “But I’m actually trying to get away from the lake at the moment.” she confessed looking at James cloak, “Wouldn’t you be cold without your cloak on?” the redhead asked a bit worried that James would get a cold just because she was running on a furious path towards the farthest place away from Severus.

“Warming charm, never leave the castle without one.” he replied with a smile, “Either way it looks better on you than it does on me.” anything did, really, he just wasn’t supposed to say compliments like that outloud. “If not to the lake, where?”

“I supposed the trees looked quite appealing all snowed in, I usually take the path near the grounds, but it’s all covered.” she added, not admitting that his compliment made her blush a little.

“Come on, Evans, where is your sense of adventure?” he asked with that smirk of his that made her heart skip a bit but her mind roll her eyes playfully.

Lily didn’t have time to think about it much since James stuck his hand in his pockets and just started walking towards the tree line as if he knew exactly where he was leading. 

James was always like that, confident, strutting the castle like no one else belonged there as much as he did. Not that he thought people didn’t deserve to be at Hogwarts, just that wherever he went he made himself at home, like he had been there all along and there was no way of denying it, and Lily Evans wasn’t sure how he did that. 

She felt quite the opposite, the outsider, too magical to be muggle, too muggle to be magical, and after her and Severus fought she felt more out of place than ever. Even Petunia had stopped talking to her over the summer, Rowena only knew what winter hols would look like, yet as she followed James her curiosity for him and his ways trumped every other inadequate feeling she had for herself. 

“How do you do where you are going without a path?”

“That’s easy, you make your own one.”

“Aren’t you worried that you will get lost in the most dangerous forest in Great Britain?”

“I don’t think we’ll get far enough to reach the vampires, don’t worry about it.” he teased. 

Lily wanted to disagree, to tell him that they might need to worry because going too deep might mean not coming back to the castle, and probably dying of hypothermia, however with James she felt like he knew exactly where he was leading, even thought the only thing that could be heard and see were their steps on the snow.

They were quiet for a while, just listening to the soft steps on the snow. It could be awkward, but for some reason it wasn’t. It felt like this is exactly what they would do every time they came together, just keep each other’s company, let their own minds just quiet down a bit or wonder in their own thoughts as they kept moving. There was a joke here and there, a comment that made the other chuckle and the decision to go for one side or the other once they were in some sort of crossroads, but their usual bickering wasn’t present as most times did. 

Lily let her energy calm and drain through the walk. The conversation with Severus still around her head, their fight, how she could not keep confronting him as he tried to apologise for being the prick he always was but she never saw. It was exhausting, but the walk was exactly what she needed to push Severus aside and remember the good things she still had at the castle, that didn’t involve the Slytherin. 

Between James being quiet for the first time in forever and her own thoughts, Lily didn’t realize that the grounds disappeared and all she could see were trees everywhere. Nothing else but forest on her all surroundings and the sun was coming down quickly.

“Potter?”

“Uhm?” he responded, still walking.

“Where exactly are we?” Lily wouldn’t admit she was scared of being lost in the forest. She was a bright witch and she could handle herself, but she didn’t  _ want _ to handle herself. There could be a million things in that forest and she just wanted to go back and sleep in her warm bed, not try to fend for her life. 

“Uhmmm, I don’t exactly know.” he said, looking around, he knew more or less where they were but to give Lily a reference would be too complicated for someone that never explored the forest itself. 

“YOU DON’T KNOW!? I’M FOLLOWING YOU!” the redhead yelled, and before he knew it James felt something cold and frozen hitting him behind the head. 

Oh yes, there was the Lily he grew to know and crush at. 

“I kn-” he tried to explain, but another ball hit him on the face, making his inner child get annoyed at the fact that he wasn’t able to let a word out, which made him grab some snow as well. 

“I can’t believe I trusted you to guide us!” she claimed again, throwing another ball that hit James on the chest. 

“You certainly wouldn’t know where to go!” he replied, throwing his first snowball at her.

“You aren’t either! You got us lost!” she added not even bothering to to make balls anymore she was just throwing as much snow at him as she could, frustrated and tired that all her quiet moments seemed to be disrupted by idiotic men. 

“I didn’t say we were lost! I said I don’t know where we are!” James threw his arms up and came closer to Lily taking her wrist on his hands making her stop throwing snow at him, and try to make her listen. 

“That’s the same bloody thing!” She tried to get rid of James’ grip, but she couldn’t. Of course he was taller and stronger, and he wasn’t exactly making it to intimidate her, but it was frustrating all the same. Which made her start kick snow at him instead. 

“It is not! There are no name for where we are, we are in the fucking forest!” 

“I know that!” she kept kicking snow at him, the frustration and anger just having a way to vent themselves.

“You are not listen-! Oh fuck!” One of Lily’s kicks ended up on James’ leg, which made his perfectly balanced stance flatter and fall on top of Lily as a consequence. His shin not loving the pain the point of the red head shoes inflicted. 

“Get off me!” She pushed until James moved to lay next to her grabbing his leg, rubbing the sore spot. Lily of course wouldn’t let the being lost so easily and kept just throwing snow at him as he was down. “You never learn, right? I told you without a path we would get lost, but of course you need to do the daring thing and come to the deepest ends and just get us who knows where, now how do we get out of here, huh?”

James sat on the snow and rubbed his leg, throwing snow back at Lily. It was childish? Yes. Would she stop? Only if she did too. “Would you stop that! You already hit me!” he replied pushing more snow on her way. “We are not on the deepest part of the forest, Hagrid’s Hut is a few miles down there!” he pointed to a semi path that guided to their left. 

Lily looked at the road and then at James, and then back in the direction he was pointing. “You said you didn’t know!”

“I don’t know how this part of the forest is called! I know how to get back to the castle, but you weren’t listening!” he answered back moving up and taking the snow out of his clothes and looking back at her offering her hand, “I wouldn’t bring you in if I would get lost, I’m not a plonker!”

Lily looked at his hand and took it before standing up, brushing the snow off as well. “For someone who supposedly has a way with words, you always seem to choose the wrong ones.” she mumbled, looking at his leg and then back at the trail.

James wanted to reply that that seemed the case only when it came to Lily, he didn’t have an issue talking with anyone else, but that would insite another fight and that was the last thing he needed at the moment. Instead of commenting on it he just started walking towards Hagrid’s hut, maybe he could have some tea and talk to the Grounds Keeper and hear about his stories to warm up and forget that he, once again, mucked things up with Lily Evans. 

They were quiet for a little while, however the silence was broken by something he didn’t expect.

“How is your leg?”

It was soft, but he knew she was really worried by the tone of her voice. Maybe not all the things that happened and all the yelling were exactly directed at him. 

“Oh they’ll have to amputate, but I’ll live.” he teased, letting her know that everything was fine, that she shouldn’t worry about the whole thing, it seemed she had enough on her mind already. 

Feeling another hit on his back, he knew she had thrown another snowball at him, as he heard the word “Git” and for some kind of reason that simple act made him feel that they would be okay. Maybe his crush wouldn’t be more than that, but at least Lily Evans didn’t hate James Potter any longer.


End file.
